visited swiss - Dec 14th to dec 17th

Hi all...

Just wanted to share with u all our experience in swiss - beautiful personified...!!

Dec 14th : We boarded swiss international airlines flight from dublin(ireland) to Zurich.
Flight was delayed by 50 mins
We reached Zurich by 5.10. Headed towards SBB desk, there was 1 person in the line..we were 2nd in the line(queue) but he took hours and I donno what they spoke becos it wasnt in english, we waited for nearly 35 mins for him to finish. Then it was our turn, we asked for 4 days swiss saver pass, paid him and headed towards train station to catch Zurich-Lucerne train.
Unforturnately we thought Zurich HB is Hardbrucke(full form for HB) we were wrong, so got down in wrong stop and again rushed to catch next train to lucerne.
Finally reached lucerne by 8pm. We roamed around near bridge and water tank and headed towards our hotel (goldener stein) whose service was too good....

Dec 15th : we took the first train to titlis from lucerne and I by mistake left my bag in cable car :( so had to come back and the person incharge of cable car trips searched for our bag in 100's of cable cars and finally found mine..
We were so glad , there was no theft worry in swiss....
We headed towards titlis and enjoyed there was few mins...since temp was - 15 C and it was windy couldn't be there for longer time.
Then we came down to have movenpick icecream, had 2 scoops....it was yummy..
From there we headed back towards titlis main station where we got our 10 chf back once we produced our tickets(pls note it costed 74 chf for 2 person inclusive of 50% discount bcos of swiss saver pass)
Then we reached railway station to catch train to city.Reached lucerne and opted for 2 hours cruise in lake lucerne. It turned out to be 2 and half hours of cruise ride..

Then by 4.45 we reached back lucerne. We were told train to interlaken leaves in another 10 mins, so we rushed to catch train to interlaken by 4.55, reached interlaken and overnite stay @ interlaken (Rossli hotel - good breakfast, in front of it is art pizza shop , who is an indian, so we got rice and dal...luckily we could have south indian dish in interlaken bcos of that guy....very friendly person...)

Dec 16 : We took 7 clock train to jungfrau, we visited ice plateau, sphinx observatory and ice palace where we happened to see ice sculptures of penguins...disney etc..
Ticket costed 208 chf for 2 people bcos we got only 25% discount for jangfrau using swiss saver pass...
We had hot veg noodles once we reached jungfrau...since we had skipped our breakfast in a hurry to catch 7 am train...
Then we had planned to opt for schilthorn but changed plans suddenly since we both were tired....and headed towards lake brienz..
We have no regrets for changing the plan since lake brienz was amazing...view was spectacular..
we stayed there for a while and when it started getting dark, we took train from brienz to interlaken and headed towards our hotel.
Ate pizza in art pizza...and slept.

Dec 17 : We took 8 Am train to interlaken OST from interlaken West and from Interlaken OST took train to Zurich, reached zurich by 11 AM.
We went to tourist info office and took 1 day trip in zurich which is for 4 hours, which includes river limmat, lake zurich and cable car ride to mountain nearby from where one can see entire zurich city from top and few important places like university,church.
I would not recommend this zurich city trip to anyone as it was not worth for money we paid. 45 chf per person for 4 hours and views were not that good when compared to interlaken and lucerne..
We went to coop and megros and bought swiss chocolates since its bit low in these 2 shops...
went to Zurich HB and took train to opfikon where we had booked our hotel hilton,apart hotel operated by hilton, this hotel was superb, food costed bit less and it was so cosy and comfortable with tub in the bathroom...
and they have free shuttle service from zurich airport to hotel every 20 mins.
We reached opfikon by train from zurich HB which was amistake since we couldnot locate the hotel and we ended up paying for taxi in zurich which is expensive..

Total expenses for 2 adults with 3 hotels,food and excursions came to around 1300 Eur's.
Hope this helps

Hi! Madhu,

Your trip to Switzerland must have been really packed with all the travelling for 4days.Glad you enjoyed the natural beauty inspite of other things.
I read that you are in Dublin.I just wanted to say that we visited Ireland in August this year.Actually our son-in-law is of Irish origin,though he is an American citizen.He organized the trip for us and we were escorted by him and our daughter and grandaughter and had the time of our lives.We went sightseeing around so many ancient castles like the Belfast castle and Kilkea castle.We stayed for a few days at Monaghan and loved every moment of our 14 days stay in Ireland.We found the Irish have very close family ties like us in India and it was a fulfilling experience for us to interact with them.
Regards
PAULINA

So Madhukri,

At last back from your hectic but wonderful trip. Hope you had the best of your time. With things like forgetting your bag in the cable car, getting down at hardbrucke instead of Hauptbahnhof, you are sure to enjoy swiss. Little adventure like this spiced up your trip.

How is Ireland by the way? Would like to know.

Bye
Leena.

hi leena...

Ireland as paulina mentioned they have very close family ties...which is too good to know.....and people are very friendly and courteous.

They are not at all rude...and climate is also good...with high 18-20 with low 1 deg celcius...

Dublin(Ireland) is best place to lead one's life...bcos of its climate, people and beautiful and clean city.

There are many places to see in Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. We have not ventured into Northern Ireland till date since we would be going back to India by Jan.

But heard its also similar to Republic of Ireland...lots of beaches, castles, museums, and parks...
Parks are really a feast to eyes when its autumn or spring...one can see variety of flowers so beautiful in every nook and corner of the roads and windows of each house...:)

every park has fountains.....lake with swans.....
Mountains and beaches are also awesome especially Dingle peninsula and Ring of kerry is worth mentioning....
Bray and howth in beach category.....
Dublin city center has lots of shops, for people who love shopping, the entire road is lined with all brands....

We have bought so many dresses that we are scared how we gonna take them all back home without paying duty for the same....

cheers!
Madhu...

Hi Paulina..

I am glad that you happened to visit Ireland...yes I completely with you in regards to close family ties and friendliness of people.

If given a chance, we would like to come back to Ireland again...having lived here for 8 months....:) still dont feel like going back to India...except that I cant work here becos of strict laws....

I noticed you are from tamilnadu...so wat have you got to say about Ireland weather....
it would have been a drastic climate change....and would have taken time to get accustomed to this weather i suppose....

thanks for sharing your views...

Cheers
Madhu...

Hi Madhu

Your travelogue is veyr interesting and the way you described it wants to me take a flight to swiss now.
looks like you are into Ireland now and glad to know you like it there

Take Care
Geetha

Hi paulina,

Have you posted any blog about your trip to Ireland? Please let me know the link if so...

Thanks
Madhu

Dear Madhukri
Yourv trip sounded great inspite of all the chaos and confusion.Ireland seems to be a lovely place from your description.

Hi madhukri,
I recently joined indusladies,
I am thinking to visit switzerland in first week of december some people say it's not worth to go in december but then i read your blog and thought to ask you would you suggest me to visit swiss in december or it's too cold and most of the places are closed?